In reel systems, and especially in those utilized in movie projectors, the film is unwound from one reel, passed through the projecting mechanism and wound onto another reel. The film on the second reel, however, has the starting end underneath thereby necessitating the rewinding of the film onto another reel prior to the next usage.
To do away with the need for rewinding, various schemes have been developed to allow the unwinding of the film from the center. One such system, for instance, is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,276,054, issued on Aug. 20, 1918, with Mr. C. G. Grabe as inventor and entitled: Moving Picture Machine. Another such center unwinding mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. 3,601,329, issued on Aug. 24, 1971, and entitled: Center Unwinding Mechanism, with Arthur Hagstrom et al, as inventors. However such reel systems are sufficiently complicated in design to possibly make them difficult to handle.
It is the purpose of the present invention to provide a center unwinding reel assembly which is simple in design and inexpensive to manufacture.